Stuart Robert pays back $38,000 in excessive home internet charges

Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert says he has repaid $37,975 of "excess usage charges" in home internet bills footed by taxpayers.

Fairfax Media revealed last week that Mr Robert, who has only recently returned to the ministry, had been charging the government more than $2000 per month for internet at his Gold Coast home, 20 times the average claimed by politicians.

However, after the Finance Department reported back, the value of the reimbursement increased to almost $38,000.

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"I‘ve immediately [repaid] a full amount of $37,975 that reflects excess usage charges under the Finance Department’s approved plan," Mr Robert said in a post on Twitter on Friday afternoon.

Special Minister of State Alex Hawke said the excessive charges were not covered by Mr Robert's department-approved plan and did not meet community expectations.

Mr Hawke said Mr Robert had only been able to access mobile broadband with limited data capacity because of his residential location but added the National Broadband Network had recently come online in the area and the MP was moving to a new plan.

"Whilst the Department of Finance approved the current internet solution, very high excess data charges have understandably caused concern," he said.

"As Mr Robert acknowledged last week, the costs were much higher than anticipated and higher than what the community expects.

"Mr Robert has volunteered to immediately repay a full amount that reflects excess usage charges beyond those covered under the plan."

In May, the most recent month reported, Mr Robert's internet use cost $2832, or about $90 per day.

The MP, who has a masters degree in information technology, said he used "around" 300 gigabytes of data in that month and the bill was a result of exceeding his data limit of 50GB and having to pay per gigabyte after that.

Three hundred gigabytes equates to about 100 hours of streaming high definition shows on Netflix or Stan, playing 3000 hours of Fortnite online or streaming music for about 2600 hours.